Surprisingly Yours, Summer
by ESP Witch
Summary: Kakashi and Anko are an established teenage couple during the Fourth's reign, things are going swimmingly, and then they find out Anko is accidentally pregnant with fraternal twin daughters. Her babies' souls? Hinata's and Sakura's. KakaAnko. It's going to be a long road to that day of birth. Sequel to Lovingly, Awkwardly, Painfully Yours, Summer.
1. The Happening (Here Goes Nothing)

Chapter One: The Happening (Here Goes Nothing)

Anko thought she was sick. She really did. She was a ninja and she was still too stupid to connect the dots.

To be fair, so was Kakashi. They were still teenagers and teenagers didn't think much about pregnancies, not even accidental ones.

He was cooking breakfast and she was sitting at the kitchen table one morning that summer… when all of a sudden the usually pleasant smell of breakfast wafted over to her as a sharp stench that overwhelmed her nostrils. She choked and felt bile rise up in her throat.

Kakashi looked around and frowned as Anko sprinted to the bathroom, knelt, and threw up into the toilet. He turned off the stove and walked quickly and calmly over to the bathroom. "Sick?" he asked, leaning in the doorway.

"Yeah, I think so. You go ahead to ANBU squad training. I'll just stay home today; I'll be fine," Anko forced out, still bowing over the porcelain goddess.

"Are you sure? I can stay home with you and take care of you," said Kakashi, looking slightly concerned.

Anko looked up and grinned, her face still a bit clammy and pale. "Relax. I was stabbed in the leg last mission without you there and I turned out fine then. I'm a big girl; I can handle it."

"Well I know you can handle it," said Kakashi irritably. "I was just offering -"

"I know." Anko's smile and her eyes softened. "And thanks. But come on. You can't cut ANBU training every time your girlfriend gets sick. It would set a bad precedent."

"That's true…" Kakashi admitted slowly. "Have you had any other symptoms?"

"Besides the random vomiting? I'm tired as fuck and I've been peeing like crazy," said Anko with typical blunt, flat crassness. "It sucks. I saw some pink spotting on my underwear a few days ago? If I'm coming down with some sort of kidney infection I swear I'm going to lose my shit."

Kakashi definitely looked concerned now, more openly than a few minutes ago. "And… you're sure you don't want me to stay home?"

"Positive," said Anko, flushing the toilet and getting up off her knees.

"... I'm coming back over here on my lunch break. And you're not going on a mission until you feel better," Kakashi decided. Anko opened her mouth furiously, and Kakashi smiled. "Doctor's orders."

Anko blushed but ducked her head sullenly and shyly. "Kay," she muttered; they said their goodbyes and Kakashi left.

Over the next few days, Anko stayed home, impatient and bored, but nothing more out of the ordinary happened. Weirdly? None of her established symptoms went away either.

It took an embarrassingly long time for her to figure it out.

She was looking over her calendar at the house one morning after Kakashi had left, shifting from one foot to the other. "Man, my periods usually run like clockwork," she muttered to herself, looking over her calendar. "It's my second day of missed period and -"

And she paused. And paled.

She thought back over it all in her mind frantically, wanting to dismiss the idea. It couldn't be, could it? But she supposed it was possible… sometimes they used protection and other times they just didn't…

That was when her weirdest recent symptom of all came to her mind, one she hadn't thought had anything to do with being sick at all - something she'd just written off as a kind of weird, temporary happening.

Her breasts and nipples were unusually tender and sore, the areolas darker and wider than was usual.

It couldn't be. But that was it. It was time to put this weird little irrational fear to rest.

No one ever had to know she had done this on this afternoon alone at home, she told herself. She'd hide the test from the nin-dogs on the way to and from the bathroom. She'd throw the test outback in the bin right after it came back negative. Set fire to it. Do whatever she had to do so that nobody ever knew.

* * *

She grabbed one of the cheap budget brand basic home pregnancy tests off of a drugstore shelf, grabbed about five packs of Twizzlers, and dumped the entire lot on the drugstore counter, glaring. She was daring, silently, for the clerk to say something. Almost hoping for the fight to pick because she was so damned nervous.

But the clerk gave her a single glance after seeing the home pregnancy test, then gave her everything and let her pay, his face neutral and his eyes stoically downward.

Back at home, she read the directions and did as they asked. Sit down on the toilet, start peeing, stop in midflow, put the stick down there, pee on the stick. Easy enough.

She waited for that reassuring negative and promised herself she'd never have unprotected sex again.

But the universe didn't care about her damn promises, apparently. Because for a moment all the breath seemed to leave her as she stared at the stick. A faint positive line appeared - and then it stayed faint. Almost unseeable.

But it definitely wasn't a negative.

"... What the fuck does that mean?!" she shrieked in the middle of the bathroom, irrationally infuriated.

The nin-dogs came sprinting into the room. "Anko, what's going on -?!" Pakkun, the head of Kakashi's nin-dogs, froze when he saw the home pregnancy test, the rest of the pack behind him. "Oh, fuck," said Pakkun distinctly, seeing the positive result.

"We were wondering why she smelled different," one of the other nin-dogs muttered.

"Please don't tell him. Wait for me to tell him," Anko begged desperately from her pathetic place on the toilet. "More than that, wait for me to be sure."

"You smell different. I don't know how much more sure you can be," said Pakkun skeptically, and he sounded annoyingly like Kakashi in that moment.

"The line's too faint! I have to check with someone!" Anko snapped defensively.

"Okay," said Pakkun, as if throwing up his hands in defeat. "But look, our ultimate loyalty is to Kakashi, so you've got forty-eight hours to figure this out and break the news."

* * *

Anko stretched back in her mind. Who would know? Only the girls, she unconsciously assumed. But Yugao and Kurenai had never been pregnant! They were both teenagers, her age!

Kushina-sama, she realized. Kushina-sama would know.

She leaped across rooftops to the small, humble home Kushina and the Fourth Hokage had chosen to live in. She knocked and rang the doorbell, jumping nervously on the balls of her feet.

Kushina opened the door and smiled warmly. "Anko! How nice to see y -!" She frowned, more perceptive than she acted. "What's wrong?" she asked immediately.

"Can I - come in?" Anko asked, wincing. Kushina immediately stepped aside to let her through. To Anko's relief, the house behind Kushina was empty.

Anko refused tea, to Kushina's enormous surprise. Instead, taking a deep, bracing breath, she sat right down in an armchair - Kushina took the sofa across the coffee table - and told the whole story, getting right to the point.

Kushina looked surprised and somber as Anko finished.

"I did as I promised myself - I burned the test into ashes and threw the ashes out back in the bin under a big pile of other trash. Then I cleaned the place of any smoke smell and came here," said Anko anxiously. "No one knows I'm here except the nin-dogs.

"Because Kushina-sama, it can't be true, can it? I mean - I'm too young to be pregnant! We even used protection some of the time! And the line was too faint - surely a faint line means it's just a mistake, right? That it's not a definite thing?"

Anko was practically begging for this all to be true.

"Oh, Anko, you are definitely old enough to get pregnant," said Kushina, her eyes wide and concerned. "Once you've hit your periods, you're old enough. And protection some of the time doesn't always cut it. In fact, a few percent of the time, protection all the time doesn't always cut it - protection all the time just decreases your chances as much as anything humanly possible can.

"Oh, Anko, we assumed - I mean, you two are usually so good when it comes to sex education. I guess we should have asked. You are still teenagers."

"But the line - it was faint!"

"Yes, well," said Kushina, becoming calmer, as if finally taking in and accepting this information, "some, more expensive tests give stronger readings than the inexpensive models."

Anko lowered her head sheepishly, remembering grabbing a budget brand basic and five packs of Twizzlers off of a drugstore shelf.

"But even a very faintly positive home pregnancy test is a positive pregnancy," said Kushina, concerned and maternal to the end. "I know, because Minato and I are going to try and have a kid ourselves this coming year - theoretically, the same year as your kid."

The words hit Anko's stomach like a ton of bricks. _Your kid._

"So I've been doing some reading," Kushina finished carefully. "... Do you… want me to help you calculate the due date?"

"Can we even if I'm not even certain when it… happened?" Anko asked tentatively.

"Of course. Almost no one knows exactly when their child was conceived. That's ridiculous," said Kushina, no-nonsense and matter of fact.

And she took up a piece of paper and a pencil and she showed Anko the correct mathematical calculations involved in figuring out a theoretical due date. The date they got: February 18th.

Anko became dizzy with fear and nervousness, staring down at the threatening date on the piece of paper atop the coffee table. _Your kid. Due date: February 18th._

Shit.

"Kakashi would be seventeen… and you would be sixteen… assuming the baby is born and you decide to keep it," Kushina finished gently.

Anko felt like the biggest fuck-up and the largest idiot on the face of the planet. Just when she'd thought she finally had it all together… _Fuck_. She was now involved in an accidental teenage pregnancy that had been conceived in a way consisting of Gothic outfits and kinky BDSM sex.

That just fucking figured.

At least she'd conceived the kid with a loving, established boyfriend and a healthy, committed relationship. Not that she was sure that would last anymore at this point, she thought dully. Really, how many young relationships survived accidental pregnancies?

"Anko." Anko looked up, wide-eyed and panicked. "You have to tell him," said Kushina, gentle but firm. "Before his summons do. You have to tell Kakashi, and the two of you should figure out what to do from there together.

"You owe him that. It's his kid, too."

"But Kushina-sama… he's going to be furious with me," said Anko in dread.

"He shouldn't be anymore furious with you than you are with yourself," said Kushina firmly. "It takes two to have accidental, unprotected sex. From the sounds of it, you've both been dumb.

"This isn't just on you, Anko. It's on him, too. That's the only reason he gets a say," said Kushina seriously. "Because we're assuming he takes it on equally as his responsibility."

* * *

Anko sat very still, shoulders hunched in, as she heard the keys turn in the lock, as she heard Kakashi get home from work. Kakashi walked in - Anko was just sitting there, looking timid, the house dark around her. All his summons looked somber.

"Okay," was the first thing he said, "if you aren't dying, I am going to call this overreacting."

Anko laughed uneasily. "Keep that in mind," she said weakly.

Hearing her laugh and joke a little, Kakashi assumed all was well and he walked into the house's kitchenette -

"I'm pregnant."

Kakashi froze.

"And you're the only person I've been having sex with… obviously," said Anko uneasily. "I took a home pregnancy test and then went to see Kushina-sama today. The test was positive, which Kushina-sama says means it's a definite thing. We managed to calculate the due date… it's in mid February. February 18th.

"Kushina-sama and your Sensei are thinking of having a baby this same year. That's how she knew…"

Kakashi just stood there, frozen.

"Please say something," said Anko quietly.

"I'm not… I'm just… going back over it… _fuck_ ," he realized, grabbing a kitchen chair and sitting slowly down. He went through it all frantically in his head. Was it -? Yes, he realized distantly, it was possible.

"I am literally the stupidest person I have ever met," he finally said slowly.

Anko smiled uneasily. "I've been thinking the same thing all day…" she admitted.

Kakashi sat back. "What the hell do we do?" he said, as if to himself, bewildered and still in shock.

"I've been thinking about it all day… and I don't like the idea of getting an abortion," Anko admitted. Kakashi's head shot up. Anko bit her lip. "I mean, I know I seem like the type of girl who should be all gung ho, but -"

"Of course," said Kakashi sharply, "the kid's not getting aborted unless you really feel you need it," and Anko relaxed. "I meant… do we give it up for adoption?" he finally finished uneasily.

"I…" Anko took a deep breath, "would like to raise it. The kid. I want to be a mother if I'm going to have a kid. And I understand if you don't want to stay and do that, and I won't judge you for that at all, and -?"

"Who exactly do you take me for?"

Anko looked up. Kakashi sounded and looked… genuinely hurt.

"I'm not giving up my child and my child's mother," he said slowly. "No. Not an option. Responsibility? That, I'm good at. It was always the more spontaneous parts that got me."

"I just…" Anko picked at her sleeves. "I just didn't want you to resent me… or anything…"

Kakashi had put a hand over hers. Warily, Anko looked up.

"Everything will be okay," he said with a small smile. Anko relaxed - scrubbed childishly at the tears in her eyes and nodded.

"So - not a kidney infection," she said at last, and they both laughed weakly, incredulously, sitting back.

Kakashi began thinking out loud. "Marriage isn't legal until both are age eighteen," he mused. "And we would only be seventeen and sixteen at birth… but we do live together. And anyone can apply to start a clan at under eighteen. The kid could get both our surnames, hyphenated. It could work," he mused, calculating.

Anko realized Kakashi really was like the dogs he summoned. That kind of automatic loyalty and duty - that was what this was for him, it was what came naturally. She was very lucky and blessed, she realized in amazement.

"Hatake-Mitarashi. I like that," she said, her tone purposefully light. "Thanks for not just assuming we'll take your name."

"I wouldn't dare," said Kakashi wryly, "not with you," and they shared a brief, amused smile.

"You know… when we apply for clan status, the whole village will know," she added quietly.

"Yeah, well, fuck them. None of them liked us anyway," said Kakashi flatly, unusually Anko for a moment.

Anko snorted and smirked. "True," she admitted. "I'll have to be taken off of active-duty and all missions until after the kid's born. That'll suck."

"It's necessary," said Kakashi sharply, protectiveness already entering his voice.

"Yeah. That's why it'll suck," said Anko bluntly. "... What about you?"

"... ANBU isn't an option," said Kakashi grimly. "Too many high-class missions. Too much chance of death. And I'll have to take Jounin-level missions more sparingly, too.

"Fuck," he said, putting his head in his hand, suddenly tired. "... We have to tell people," he suddenly realized, his eyes widening. "And not just the village. We have to tell our friends."

"Yeah." Anko winced. "I've been thinking about that, too."

There was somberness in the little house for a moment.

"Guest room'll be the nursery," Anko ventured at last. "... Do you think we'll ever get used to the idea? Grow to care for the kid? Stop feeling shocked - or like we can't breathe?"

"I don't know," Kakashi admitted. "God I hope so. Neither of us had great parenting models to work off of. We'll have to try to be better than the people who raised us - not take our own shit out on our kid.

"We can't punish them. This isn't their fault. But our parenting figures sucked."

"I know. Scares the shit out of me," said Anko softly, her eyes distant. "Here goes nothing."


	2. No Regrets

Chapter Two: No Regrets

Kakashi and Anko told their friends first. They invited all their friends over to their house - only Minato and Kushina, looking concerned, knew part of the truth.

And they told everyone everything - including their final decisions.

"We tell the village next," said Kakashi seriously, on the sofa in his living room surrounded by everyone including the nin-dogs, "indirectly, by applying for certain things."

"Which will be granted," said Minato immediately. "Kakashi… I just didn't think you were the type to…"

"Neither did I," said Kakashi bluntly. "That was the problem." He and Minato shared a long look. "But supposedly," Kakashi added casually, sitting back, "some good will come of it."

"Definitely some good," said Kushina warmly. "I am so looking forward to meeting them."

"Protection of Anko just became our top priority," Pakkun declared seriously, and the other nin-dogs were nodding.

"Okay. I have something important to say, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who's thinking this?" said Kurenai uneasily. "Why would you want to have a child as teenagers? Don't you want more time to… I don't know, be young, have a life?"

"Why would you want to have a kid at all?" Jiraiya agreed, looking horrified at the very idea of an accidental pregnancy, and Kushina glared at him.

"Anko, you're not thinking this through," said Ibiki seriously. "And the fact that this is apparently also your fault and your undying love for your boyfriend are the only two things keeping me from murdering Hatake Kakashi right now, slowly and with instruments."

"Believe me, no one appreciates that more than I do," said Kakashi uneasily.

"Shut up!" Ibiki's eyes flashed in a glare at him. "If the two of you go ahead with this stupidass plan and I end up having a surrogate grandchild, you had better be a model parent at all times or that plan goes right back into action, you sniveling piece of shit!"

"... Of course, Ibiki-san," said Kakashi, looking genuinely worried.

"Look, I get what you guys are saying, but you've got it all wrong," said Anko intently. "I am thinking this through. Kakashi and I have been alone all our lives and it didn't do a damn thing for either of us! I've had shitloads of casual sex, I have lots of friends my age, I drank and fought and ate and conquered, I got into lots of fights as a shinobi and had some psychological scarring and trauma besides. And I still felt empty inside. All Kakashi proved spending his life alone is that he's an awesome fighter but he doesn't know a damn thing about how to take care of himself alone!"

"Thank you," Kakashi muttered.

"But look at what we've got a shot at now. If we can make it through this…" said Anko slowly, and she meant every word. "We could have a family, for the first time for either of us. A good family. We could have a loving relationship, and a kid, and a home, and a fucking support system like in all those trauma literature books. We even have the chance to give a kid a better childhood than we got.

"I wanted to be a mom, Kakashi wanted to be a dad, we just didn't think it would ever happen for either of us. Well. Now's our shot!"

"But Anko," said Kurenai worriedly, "you can still be together and then start a family several years later."

"I know," said Anko firmly. "But if I don't have this kid, or I give it away to someone else, I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life regretting it. And I have firmly decided not to regret anything else in my damn life!"

Kakashi was smiling at her warmly. It was at that point several people realized, from the look on his face, that Kakashi really did love Anko.

"People aren't going to like it," Minato warned them.

"Yeah," said Kakashi. "I know." He leaned back and repeated defiantly what he'd said to Anko: "Fuck them."

On their way out, Minato and Kushina looked Anko and Kakashi dead in the eye, standing near the doorway.

"We are really proud of both of you," said Minato seriously, "and we'll be honored to have our kid attend the Ninja Academy alongside yours."

Anko smiled. "... Thanks, Sensei," said Kakashi softly.

* * *

And so Kakashi and Anko did as they promised. Everyone in Konoha village knew they were a couple by this point, so the string of very public applications told the whole story for everyone.

Anko applied for a leave of absence from active duty and all missions on account of pregnancy - approved by the Fourth himself. Kakashi stepped down from ANBU without explicit reason and requested more infrequent Jounin level missions, the missions themselves starting at least a full month from now - approved by the Fourth himself.

They applied together underage to start a Hatake-Mitarashi clan, a joint clan - approved by the Fourth himself.

The rumors flew and the talk got loud, fast. People said it was typical of two clearly irresponsible teenaged people, to pull something like this, not knowing how hilariously far they were from the truth. People talked about an illegitimate clan child in scandalous, soft tones. People talked about the likelihood of a child remembering their own parents' eventual age-eighteen wedding, under the best of circumstances.

Predictions and bets were made about how long the relationship would last, or how long would last the plan to have the child and keep it.

Outside of their friends and pets, Kakashi and Anko kept to themselves and their house. They were used to gossip, and they paid little heed to it or to the dirty and disapproving looks they now got in the streets. They had more important things to worry about.

They had a pregnancy to get through together.

* * *

Author's Notes: I have decided partway through book two that the theme song for my Kakashi/Anko couple is totally, two hundred percent "LIFEGOESON" by Noah and the Whale.


	3. The Extra Work (Beginnings)

Chapter Three: The Extra Work (Beginnings)

For the entire first month, Kakashi had no missions: he spent all his time with Anko at home.

Anko became extremely irritable, prone to frequent mood swings. She complained a lot, yelled loudly, and sometimes threw things (not at him). She frequently threatened murder and bloodshed - again, not of him, or their unborn child, but definitely of plenty innocent others.

Kakashi might have been worried if he thought she meant any of it. But that was essentially just how Anko blew off steam. She was a temperamental ninja and a former student of Orochimaru.

To be fair, she had a lot to be irritable about, including breast pain and swelling, constant sluggish fatigue, and constant trips to the bathroom either to vomit or to pee. All possible scents had essentially had to be removed from their home.

Pakkun and the dogs did their level best to help her, as did Kakashi. A part of Anko got frustrated because she wanted him to yell back at her just so she could have something tangible to get good and angry about. A deeper part of her was grateful to him for these days always talking calmly and reasonably and putting up a cool neutral face.

He was always gentle. Privately, she appreciated that. It made her feel like they were in this together. Kakashi learned to read Anko's little silent apologies and took them for what they were.

But they did have things to do. Most important on their list in that first month was to find the right Healer to help them go through pregnancy and deliver their baby. Kushina enthusiastically sent them lots of material about midwives and natural, unmedicated childbirths, but though Anko never said anything to Kushina, she found all that to be "a gigantic crock of bull."

"Pregnancy is already natural," she grumbled to Kakashi, looking over the material one day at the breakfast table. "I want pain relief. I want the cold hand of high-tech science at my labor."

"I want someone highly qualified there in case something happens," Kakashi added worriedly, a slight control freak to the end.

So they did their research and privately found someone better suited to them, not exactly telling anyone about it - they were already getting plenty of unsolicited advice from friends as it was.

They found a highly educated obstetric Healer, a specialist in the field, who worked a solo practice from a high-tech hospital. Check, check, and check. Anko wanted consistency in advice and the chance to get really comfortable with one person, hence a solo practitioner.

They called the office first with a series of questions, and found a person who checked off all their qualifications: he was male (Anko requested this), and he took a more serious bent of mind to the practice of Healing (Kakashi requested this). His office was pro-breastfeeding, pro-pain relief and pro-every other modern medical and technological convenience, anti-water birth, and anti-CAM (CAM was basically alternative therapies, what Anko called "hippie dippie weatherman shit").

His particular hospital, one in the several interconnected branches of Konoha hospitals, had squat bars for pushing, comfortable sofas in the birthing rooms for dads to room-in (a Kakashi request), places close by outside the birthing rooms for friends to gather, an NICU, all modern technological medical conveniences, breastfeeding-friendly and baby-friendly policies, and a policy of allowing eating and drinking during labor (another Anko request).

So they scheduled their first appointment and found him in person, Hideki-san, to be a solemn, soft-spoken young man, small and slim with a head of straight dark hair. They sat down in one of his medical rooms in the part of the hospital he worked at - Anko on the hospital bed, Kakashi in a waiting chair - and he began.

The first thing he did was confirm the pregnancy. He did this by having Anko lie back on the hospital bed, and by bringing a hand with glowing gold healing chakra slowly over her abdomen, carefully and methodically sensing everything out. He cocked his head, like he was listening, then nodded and released the glowing gold chakra.

"You can sit up," he said, and Anko sat up, strangely anxious.

"Well?" she demanded.

He took her aggressiveness in stride. "You are definitely pregnant," he said, "and I can count the official due date as February 18th. But…"

He peered around at them anxiously.

"Is something wrong?!" Anko demanded as Kakashi straightened.

"There are two developing fetuses in there, which means you are carrying fraternal twins," Hideki-san admitted quietly. He was not entirely sure how this would go over, it was clear.

"Twins…" said Anko slowly with big, puzzled eyes… and then finally it hit her. "Holy shit, we're having two kids!" she said, looking over incredulously at Kakashi.

"Yes. I heard," said Kakashi weakly, looking stunned.

Then Anko jumped up, ran over, and hugged him laughing, jumping up and down. Kakashi smiled warmly almost despite himself and hugged her back. He was nervous as hell, but it was harder to be nervous when Anko was around.

"Fraternal." Anko whirled around, abruptly changing subject. Both men blinked, surprised. "That means they'll look different, right?"

"It does. Unlike with identical twins, it means two different eggs were fertilized at the same time," said Hideki-san quietly, nodding once. "A rarity."

"Yeah, well, we're just awesome like that," said Anko bluntly. She sat down and looked him square in the eye. "So what's next?"

"Agreed," said Kakashi, becoming cooler, more himself again. "Surely that isn't it, is it?" He turned to the doctor.

"It is not," Hideki-san agreed with a small, amused smile.

Anko also had to give a complete medical history, go through a complete physical exam, and then put up with endless tests and genetic screenings using lots of glowing chakra instruments that all essentially came back to "nothing's really wrong." It was quite exasperating for her, actually, she wasn't naturally a terribly patient person.

But she put up with it all fairly neutrally. It was the ninja in her.

And after all that came a lot of talking.

Anko and Kakashi sat in twin waiting chairs and discussed the reasons they had chosen Hideki's office, and Hideki gave them some professional medical advice.

"You are slightly technically overweight - heavy," he told Anko, with impressive matter of factness considering how dangerous she could be, "but it is not severe and obviously as a ninja you are healthy. So if we keep you eating carefully while pregnant, I do not think it is anything to worry about. You have also said you've been medicated for depression in the past but are not currently on any medications. So again, no problem.

"These are simply two things we should keep an eye on at this point. Excessive weight gain and a severe mood swing into depression are possibilities, though I would say not strong ones. If depression happens, in the name of as you say the cold hand of modern medical science, medication would be required but would have to be handled very carefully."

"Right," said Anko seriously, nodding.

"What's the danger with excessive weight gain?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"Well, premature labor, among other things, is a possibility," Hideki-san admitted. "But as I said: no need to worry at this point.

"As for your lifestyle: You can continue to work out as normal. It's actually encouraged. You can also continue drinking tea, as long as it's in careful moderation. Ah, you seem surprised," said Hideki-san, smiling.

"I thought I'd have to give up tea," said Anko, blinking with big eyes.

"No more than two hundred milligrams of caffeine a day," said Hideki sternly. "And black tea is recommended, not herbal. Herbal has too many factors that have not yet been studied. No herbal tea at all."

"Okay," said Anko, frowning, curious.

"Here in this packet is recommended pregnancy eating procedures," said Hideki, handing it over. "You should also be taking a prenatal vitamin."

"Can I still have spicy food? I like the spice," said Anko uncertainly.

"Well indigestion is not good, but if you don't get severe indigestion from spice, spicy food is just fine," said Hideki. "Now. You will have to quit smoking - and without the use of substitutes like patches, if possible."

"Great," Anko grumbled as Kakashi gave her a meaningful sort of look.

"I recommend relaxation and meditation techniques, since you don't seem to like more CAM oriented activities," said Hideki. "No incense, I think. You throw up enough as it is.

"Oh. And e-cigarettes and hookahs aren't good either. So don't use those as substitutes. You'll just have to quit. Otherwise, your two babies will develop in a heavily smoke filled environment. And being around lots of smoke isn't even good for adults."

"Now… I have questions. Ones I wanted to wait for you instead of asking your office," Anko admitted.

"Okay," said Hideki, nodding once again.

"What about… sex?" Anko asked tentatively. "Because we get into some… pretty heavy… kink."

Hideki did not react outwardly to this. He took it in for a long moment, realizing this was a delicate matter.

"Sex itself is fine," he said at last. "But not even a roller coaster is good for a developing baby. Too much jolting and chance for physical pain. Does that answer your question?" he said carefully.

"Yes," said Anko immediately, Kakashi nodding in relief.

They knew what that meant: sex itself was fine, but any physical type of kink was off the table.

"Okay," said Anko, "so… right now I'm about as hairy as a gorilla." Kakashi snorted, giving her an amused sideways look, and even Hideki was trying hard not to smile. "What?" she exploded in exasperation. "It's true! So what about… you know, waxes? Hair removal?"

"Waxes are fine, but be careful of hurting your skin. Pregnancy skin is sensitive to pain," said Hideki, frowning in slight concern.

"And… facials and massages? I like those, too. I'm not much of an onsen girl -"

"Which is good," said Hideki, "because even something like a hot tub is not good for a developing baby. Too much soaking in extreme heat for too long a timeframe."

"Right. But I like my facials and massages."

"Those are fine," said Hideki, nodding. "I can give you a list of ingredients to watch out for when checking facial boxes. The ingredients are not in all facials, so you'll just have to be a little more selective about which facials you pick.

"And massage is fine, but make sure to go to a licensed professional and be careful of positioning."

"It's a lot to remember," Anko admitted.

"It is," said Hideki with amusing matter of factness. "Ironically, a typical pregnancy symptom is forgetfulness. If this was all created by someone, I think pregnancy is a perfect example of their sense of humor."

* * *

Next they had to tell everyone, all their friends, that they were having twins. They sent out announcements. They immediately got lots of concerned letters and notes in return, asking endless annoying questions as to whether they were sure they wanted to go through with all this after all.

Finally, they sent out a blanket fax announcing that they were entirely sure they were still having the two kids, thank you very much, and Anko - who was in an even worse mood since having to watch what she ate and give up smoking - methodically set fire to every single negative piece of mail one afternoon in a tiny bonfire at the kitchen table.

Kakashi, however, did pay a private visit to Minato one afternoon.

Minato was at home at the time. They sat together on Minato's front steps, and Minato just sat there silently and patiently for a long time, ready to listen.

"... Everything's going to change now, isn't it?" Kakashi said as if to himself.

"Are you reconsidering?" Minato asked neutrally. He was one of the only ones who hadn't asked them _if they were sure_.

"No!" said Kakashi immediately. "I'm not reconsidering! I'm just… processing. There's a difference.

"For Anko… it's different," he said softly. "It's already real for her. She's putting her feet up a lot and watching what she eats and pampering herself and counting out milligrams of tea and meditating whenever she wants a cigarette. She's letting Ibiki come over with shipments of healthy food and stand there glaring deadpan while he helps her with her facials. Despite all the yelling, she's actually handling it pretty well. And she's comfortable with doing the impossible. But for me…

"Everything's going to be different," he said, for once struggling to articulate what he was feeling. "What if… what if I'm not good at this? The whole… father thing? Everything makes so much sense when I'm with Anko and I guess with the kids inside her, but when I'm away… I don't know, this whole thing starts to seem crazier."

Minato was thoughtful. "I'd go with your gut instinct," he said at last. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy, but if it makes sense to you… go with it.

"And is everything going to be different? Yes. But look at it this way: not all the differences will be bad. You'll have two more people to love, protect, and care for in your life. Two more precious people - three, if you count Anko as a new addition. Three precious people who need you.

"That's pretty amazing, right?"

Kakashi genuinely looked like he'd never thought of it this way before. "Yeah," he said softly in realization. "Pretty amazing."

"Worth the extra work, in other words," said Minato, smiling.

"... Yes," said Kakashi quietly. "Thank you, Sensei."


	4. Emotions and Eyes

Chapter Four: Emotions and Eyes

Kakashi was unusually frantic leaving on his first away mission during the pregnancy.

"You'll be okay?"

"I'll be okay," Anko confirmed.

"You'll be okay!" he repeated absently to himself, giving her a quick, hard hug. His eyes were amusingly wide and harried. He turned to Pakkun. "Pakkun - I want someone with her every second of every day!"

"Geez, Kakashi -!"

"Got it, boss," said Pakkun, nodding.

"And -!" Kakashi turned to Ibiki, standing there, who still didn't like him, and went suddenly silent.

"... I'll check in once every day," said Ibiki in a hard voice, nodding as if this was a mission of the gravest importance he had ever been given.

"Thank you," said Kakashi, relaxing wearily. "I've talked to Sensei and Kushina-sama, too, just in case… And our friends have promised to look in from time to time…

"Yeah. I think that's everything," he said in a quiet, hushed voice to himself, in some amount of alarm. He turned to Anko. "I love you," he said desperately.

"And I love you," said Anko steadily. "But since you're the one going off to potentially die on a Jounin-level mission to Snow Country, it seems like I should be allowed to be the more nervous one?"

She smiled warmly at him, and after a brief pause he smiled back.

"True," he said. "Sorry."

Anko watched him walk down the road toward the Konoha gates with his pack over his back. She clutched her belly, where she could not feel or see anything yet, and frowned worriedly.

Ibiki put a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder. "... You're more worried than you let on, aren't you?" he said seriously.

Anko smiled uneasily. "Poor Kakashi," she said. "He'll have enough to worry about as it is."

* * *

Kakashi went through the mission with his team, fighting with as clear a head as could be expected under the circumstances.

But actually? Things were a lot clearer than he'd expected.

Whenever he was fighting, he just pictured Anko standing calmly in their doorway, carrying two extra people who needed him. And he found? That he fought better. And harder. Harder than he had in a long time, with a kind of icy resolve to him.

He had to stay alive for three particular precious people. His family needed him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Anko stayed home and worried.

In some ways, she envied Kakashi. He could fight all the frantic concern out of him; right now he had definite opponents to beat up.

But she didn't! All she could do was sit around and worry that she wasn't hearing from him, getting vicious, horrible visions of being sent back a note saying the father of her babies was dead!

Perhaps that was why this part of the pregnancy was particularly hard for her.

Her so-called guardians were with her always, Ibiki and the dogs especially, but still, some things they couldn't fix for her. Some things they couldn't help or even understand, no matter how they tried. They weren't Kakashi, who seemed intuitively understanding.

The more physical symptoms were almost easier: she was still tired all the time, but now she had constipation, the vicious heartburn-indigestion-flatulence-bloating square of loveliness, aversions to certain foods, frequent headaches, and a slight whitish vaginal discharge started appearing on her underwear.

The emotional symptoms were harder: She cried a lot.

It was embarrassing, actually. The stupidest things could leave her in fits of tissues. Commercials on the TV, feeling sick just thinking about her favorite food, a fly dying on a windowsill, and everything more serious than that.

She thought part of it might be psychological: with Kakashi gone, all of a sudden the weight of what was happening hit Anko. She was having two children at sixteen years old. Apprehension and doubt set in, as did an anxious, panicky, somewhat awful kind of joy and excitement.

She went from frantically excited to frantically weepy a _lot_ in that time, as she slowly on her own mentally came to terms with what she had decided - and what was happening in (or to?) her life.

She never told anyone about these thoughts. It would have felt like giving in. She kept the reasons for her mood swings and weeping to herself. Everyone assumed it was all simple pregnancy hormones.

But then she had her second trip to visit Hideki. "I have these spidery purple veins on my thighs…" She was showing him, having lifted up her skirt on the doctor's table.

"Ah. Spider veins," said Hideki. "It's what they're actually called. Yeah, that's normal, they aren't a problem. But they might not go away again after labor. We'll have to see."

"Great." Anko sagged, getting teary, feeling defeated and defective.

"You're having sadness?" Hideki guessed. "Up and down feelings?"

"Yeah…" Anko admitted, and she told him the whole thing.

But to her surprise, he said: "Oh, that's perfectly normal."

"It is?" Anko looked up.

"Well, the pregnancy hormones are part of it. But most of what you're feeling? Pretty much all new parents feel that way. No one ever feels ready," said Hideki firmly. "But just in case, we will monitor this up and down sadness.

"Positive: I weighed you, and your beginning weight targeting for pregnancy is so far, so good. Let's talk about keeping that up."

But there was one more thing they also did at that appointment, something that greatly excited Anko.

* * *

Kakashi had been rotated to guard duty that night outside the mountain cave in Snow Country. Everyone else was asleep inside. He was curled up in the falling snow in the darkness, rubbing his chest before the fire to keep warm, the cave full of sleeping teammates behind him -

When Pakkun appeared at his side.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Pakkun, you're supposed to be watching Anko -!" he began, panicked.

"I know. She told me to give this to you." Pakkun handed the dark picture over. Kakashi took it - and froze.

Pakkun smirked. "Gestational sac ultrasound - first one," he said, and he disappeared in a poof to return back to Konoha.

Kakashi stared at the picture wide-eyed for a moment, feeling a strange fatherly pride somewhere inside him. Then he clutched the picture tightly to his chest, and felt so much at once he thought he would burst.

* * *

Meanwhile, Pakkun appeared back to Anko.

"He's just fine," he told her, smiling. "Sitting guard for his team tonight. Seemed totally stunned when he saw the ultrasound, though. There were some real fatherly emotions in those eyes."

Anko relaxed over an evening cup of tea at her kitchen table and smiled - still a little teary, but happy all the same.


End file.
